You might not think that speed really matters when you're looking for the best external drive, but you'll soon change your mind when you're copying over gigabytes of files and watching the progress bar crawl along at a glacial pace. If you're looking for more accessories, you might also want to take a look at our pick of the best power banks.

If you're looking for a device specifically for gaming, see our guide to the best SSD for PS5, and remember you can also back up files with the best cloud storage. We also provide links to the retailers with the best current prices online. Our guide below lists the best external hard drives and the best SSDs with the specs and the pros and cons of each. SSDs are faster and more reliable but they come at a higher price. The former can give you big storage capacities for the lowest price, but they're relatively slow and because they have moving parts they can become unreliable if knocked or dropped. But the first thing you'll need to decide is what capacity you need (measured in gigabytes (GB) or Terabytes (TB), and what kind of hard drive you want: either a traditional external hard drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD). If you need some pointers on what to look for when choosing the best external hard drive for you, skip down to the questions section at the bottom. We've included options that should suit every need, whether you're looking for the best value hard drive to the best specs you can get. We've rated them for build quality and durability, portability, capacity options, transfer speed, connectivity and value for money based our own reviews and those of customers online.

To make it easier to choose, we've put together our selection of the best external hard drives for both PCs and Macs. Choosing the best external hard drive can be challenging since they come in different formats, sizes and builds and offer different connectivity options and other features.

4 tb external drive for mac